Mr Salter was a member of the Committee on the Reform of the House of Commons chaired by Labour MP Tony Wright and played a prominent role in organising MPs to turn up and vote through a full package of reforms which:

• Give MPs the ability to directly elect both the chairs and the members (by party) of the Select Committees of the House of Commons;
• Establishes a Backbench Business Committee to give the Commons control over all non-Government business;
• Establishes a House Business Committee which will ensure that Government business managers have to seek the approval of senior MPs on matters to put before the Commons and on the scrutiny of important legislation.

Martin Salter said:-

“For far too long Parliament has often seemed little more than the poodle of Government and important legislation or controversial measures often escape proper scrutiny by the use of procedural devices. This is because the organisation of business has been left to the whips and the government business managers but now that MPs have finally decided to get off their knees and start exerting a little influence and a little control, it is unlikely that any major issue in the future will escape proper examination before being passed into the law of the land. It is a shame that both the Conservative and Labour front benches tried to water down the Wright Committee proposals because the nation will get better laws if there is a better system of effective scrutiny.”

He added:-

“There is no doubt that in the wake of the expenses scandal our constituents expect us to demonstrate that we are serious about putting reform of the House of Commons back on track. The Wright Committee proposals represent a good but modest start and are a little bit of history, but clearly much more still needs to be done. Unless we show that we are serious about making a break with the past and delivering a stronger and more effective Commons Chamber with scope for greater public engagement and proper backbench control over House Business, it is going to be difficult to convince people that, collectively, we really have embraced the call for change. It is of the utmost importance, as we move closer to the general election, that this of all Parliaments can prove to the public that its MPs are serious about reform.”

“The tributes from across the political spectrum have been generous and well deserved:”

Margaret Thatcher called him: “A great Parliamentarian and a man of his principles.”

Tony Blair added: “Michael Foot was a giant of the Labour Party, a man of passion, principle, and outstanding commitment to the many causes he fought for. We shall greatly miss him and always revere his memory.”

Peter (now Lord) Walker the former Conservative Cabinet Minister said: “I think I disagreed with on almost everything in politics, but I came to admire him as a man of integrity and passionate beliefs.”

David Blunkett, the former home secretary, said: “In the 47 years that I have been a member of the Labour party, I have rarely come across anyone as gracious, thoughtful and intellectually sharp as Michael Foot. It was a privilege to have known him and to have learned from him - not simply as a politician, but as that rare breed: an intellectual and a thinker.”

As a student Daniel Hannan recalled seeing Foot speak at the Oxford Union in the 1980s. He said, “At around that time he was accused, outrageously, of having collaborated with the KGB. I remember, even as a student, becoming angry on his behalf: was there ever a politician less likely to betray his country?”

Ken Livingstone, the former London mayor, gave perhaps the most concise summary of Foot’s life in politics. He said: “It is amazing that someone that nice gets to the top of the Labour party but perhaps not too surprising that someone that nice didn’t win the election.”

“It was only last January when I was privileged to see Michael Foot and legendary trade union leader Jack Jones at a special meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party called in their honour. Both men were introduced by former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock. Even at the age of ninety-five Michael Foot cut an impressive, although frail, figure when he gave his best wishes to Gordon Brown and a packed room of Labour MPs and peers. Just a few months before he died, this giant of Parliament and the British Labour Movement still had the ability to exude a sense of both history and principle. I can’t help thinking that with the passing of Michael Foot, we have lost one of the last totally unspun politicians of our age. As such, our politics will be the poorer. 

“Michael Foot was born, incredibly, a year before the First World War broke out and for many young members of the Labour Party today, such a time is as distant as the Trojan War. Prior to his being made editor of the “Evening Standard” at the age of 28, he had already achieved fame from his co-authoring of the pamphlet “Guilty Men”, which attacked Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement.

“He first entered Parliament in the election of 1945 and again in a 1960 by-election following his surprise defeat in 1955. He was soon in conflict with the Labour whips and had the whip withdrawn the year after his return to the Commons, not re-joining the PLP until 1963 under Harold Wilson.

“Michael became Labour leader in 1980 as the only candidate capable of uniting an increasingly faction-riven party, and steered it through the breakaway of the “Gang of Four” in 1981 who went on to form the ill-fated SDP. Interestingly, he was something of a mentor to someone who may well of been a possible candidate for SDP membership, the young Tony Blair, who to his credit stayed loyal to Labour at a dreadful time. Michael resigned in 1983 after “longest suicide note in history” election debacle to be replaced by Neil Kinnock.

“Although he was never Prime Minister, which was always going to be a tall order with the Labour Party too absorbed in civil war to care much about appealing to the electorate, he saw us through those turbulent years.

“He was a link with the past whose achievements, sincerity, and passion have motivated many over the years to work hard for a fairer society, and his legacy is the inspiration his lifetime of achievement continues to give all those who share his political convictions, and maybe even those who don’t.”

The wide-ranging debate was on the report and recommendations of the Reform of the House of Commons, upon which Mr Salter was elected to serve as a Member. Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Salter emphasised the greater need for backbenchers to scrutinise the work of Government, and argued strongly for the election of Select Committee chairs and members rather than by appointment by the whips.

Of the appointment of Select Committee chairs, he said:-

“It is time that we stopped the Executive from handing out Select Committee chairs as booby prizes to sacked Ministers. We had a ridiculous situation - it happened on both sides of the House-in which someone would be removed from Government and, as a consolation prize, given a Select Committee chair and they would then scrutinise the decisions that they had made some months previously. If there is one simple principle to which we should all adhere, it is that we cannot have those who would be scrutinised selecting their own scrutineers, and we certainly cannot have Government Ministers or former Government Ministers scrutinising their own decisions in that way.”

Mr Salter also put forward the view that, in the light of the expenses scandal, it was time that politicians were honest with the public about the effectiveness of some Parliamentary procedures. Speaking of Early Day Motions, which are Parliamentary petitions that MPs can sign up to, Mr Salter said:-

“It is time for us to be honest with the public and to say that early-day motions have become a con trick. They are political graffiti, and we sign too many of them. I am guilty of this; indeed, we all are. I sign too many of them; in many circumstances, I sign them to make people who write to me happy. I should be limited on the number of early-day motions that I may sign - we all should. Frankly, if we were allowed to sign only four or five a month, and if a debate on the Floor of the House were automatically triggered if 50, 60 or 70 per cent. of the House signed up to an early-day motion on a suitable cross-party basis, that would be a way in which the public could meaningfully drive the agenda of this place.”

He added:-

“These reforms should have been introduced 200 years ago - but better late than never. I conclude on a serious point. I am leaving this place in a few weeks’ time, but I want to say that this Parliament, of all Parliaments, has been tainted not by the actions of the majority of Members of Parliament who are, on the whole, diligent, hard-working and tremendously committed to the people who they represent, but has been let down by the actions of a minority. This Parliament of all Parliaments needs to show that it is capable of reform, but reform is not 50 recommendations of the Wright Committee, or resolutions tabled by Robin Cook or by Jopling; it is a continuous process, but it has stalled-and for far too long. We now have an opportunity, despite the procedural wranglings, to get the reform agenda back on track and to reconnect this place with the people who sent us here.”

Speaking after the debate, Martin Salter said:-

“I am pleased that in spite of procedural manoeuvrings by the whips and the reluctance of some in the Government, that we have cleared the first hurdle to making Parliament and politics more democratic and responsive to the public. But while eleven of the Reform Committee proposals were agreed yesterday, the five that were objected to will have to be debated again on 4^th March. These are the more contentious proposals including the election of Select Committee members and chairs, and the power to remove them. It is time that power was handed from the party managers to the backbenchers in order that they might carry out the task of scrutiny that they were elected to do, and I will be working hard over the coming weeks to ensure that backwoodsmen on all sides of the House don’t scupper the most important Parliamentary reforms for one hundred years.”

One casualty of this period - known as the “wash up” - could be the recommendations of the Wright Committee on Parliamentary Reform, upon which I was elected to serve. Time and time again, Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman have stated their commitment to Parliamentary reform as a means, especially following the expenses scandal, of helping restore trust in our political system. But yet again, the business managers and the whips are doing all they can to put the breaks on these urgent reforms recommended by the Wright Committee by insisting on a bizarre procedural motion that means that the recommendation will fall if a single Member yells “object”. No doubt a suitable stooge can be prevailed upon to oblige them.

At midday last Thursday 4^th, there was an emergency meeting of the Wright Committee at which, in the absence of clarity from the Government, we agreed to summon Harriet Harman and Sir George Young to appear before us in public. Hopefully this will concentrate minds and Harriet Harman in particular, will now reflect on how close the Government are coming to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on the reform agenda.

But it’s not all been bad news from Parliament. In the last week of January, a Bill brought forward by Reading Borough Council to toughen up legislation on illegal street trading passed its third reading stage in the Commons and is now off to be scrutinised in the Lords. The proposed legislation would give police special powers which have proved effective in other areas of the country, such as limiting the activities of pedlars from trading house to house and seizing counterfeit or faulty products. I have no desire to limit the activities of genuine hawkers but I am concerned that consumers in Reading are not ripped off and that legitimate traders do not face unfair competition from fly-by-night operators.

Finally, congratulations to Geoffrey Field Junior head Charlie Clare, and Bath Road Reservoir campaigner Mel Woodward, who met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a reception for “Community Champions.” “I always enjoy taking people from Reading West to Number 10, and I thought it appropriate to nominate two people with whom I’ve been working closely over the last couple of years on campaigns that are both important to Reading and close to my heart. I desperately want to see the Ufton Court summer camp project succeed in providing affordable outdoor education opportunities for youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds and I firmly believe that the Bath Road Reservoir site should become a local environmental amenity. Both Mel and Charlie have been at the centre of these projects and thoroughly deserve this wonderful opportunity to look behind Britain’s most famous front door.

The purpose of the reception was for the Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet and Government to thank local residents for their role in promoting community engagement and improving the quality of life in their area.

Martin Salter nominated Bath Road Reservoir campaigner Mel Woodward and Geoffrey Field Junior School head Charlie Clare as his “Community Champions”.

Mr Salter said:-

“I always enjoy taking people from my constituency around Parliament and occasionally to Number 10. The last time I was invited to nominate Community Champions I chose Marjory Marjorie McClure, Branch Manager of Battle Library and Reading Street Warden, Ahmed Abd-Eighany. This time I thought it appropriate to invite two people with whom I’ve been working closely over the last couple of years on campaigns that are both important to Reading and close to my heart. I desperately want to see the Ufton Court summer camp project succeed in providing affordable outdoor education opportunities for youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds and I firmly believe that the Bath Road Reservoir site should become a local environmental amenity for that part of my Reading West constituency. Both Mel and Charlie have been at the centre of these projects and thoroughly deserve this wonderful opportunity to look behind Britain’s most famous front door.”

Charlie Clare says:-

“To have both the active support and encouragement of our local MP over many years has been invaluable and I am delighted to accept this invitation to go to Number Ten on behalf of all the professionals who work tirelessly and effectively to increase the life chances and opportunities of all those who live in South Reading. It is an enormous privilege to have worked for so long beside such dedicated colleagues within my school, across Whitley and in the wider Reading. The quality of colleagues’ work, their drive and determination, the support of parents, and above all the needs of our pupils is what’s kept me working here so long.”

Mel Woodward says:-

“I am delighted to have been chosen to go to Number 10, this award is for everyone who has helped keep the reservoir safe from the clutches of Thames Water so far.  Without the tireless campaigning and support from everyone involved in the Save the Bath Road Reservoir campaign, the site may well now have had planning permission granted and may have been counting its days.  I’m overwhelmed at Martin’s generosity in nominating me, and am sure this will be a tremendous boost for our campaign to protect this important green oasis in the heart of Reading.”

Mr Salter pledged his support as heart patients, carers, and medics who descended on the Houses of Parliament this week demanding a renewed commitment from all political parties to tackle heart and circulatory disease - the UK’s biggest killer - during the next decade.

Almost one hundred British Heart Foundation supporters lobbied their local MPs with calls for a planned and published approach to protect the heart health of the nation. They were backed by a 150,000 signature petition from people calling for a new heart plan.

Mr Salter said:-

“Heart and circulatory disease will affect almost every family at some stage in their lives. That’s why I’m pledging my support to tackle heart and circulatory disease at the next general election and beyond.”

While the number of people dying from cardiovascular disease has fallen, the UK still lags behind other western countries.

Peter Hollins, Chief Executive at the BHF said:-

“There has been tremendous progress over the last ten years - but heart disease is responsible for a third of all deaths in the UK. We need to go further and faster to beat this.

“Patients still don’t receive life saving treatments like cardiac rehabilitation - if this were a pill it would have been on the NHS years ago. Heart and circulatory disease remains disproportionately high amongst people living in disadvantaged communities. We need a Government that is willing to tackle the UK’s biggest killer head on with a new heart plan to ensure patients are given the heart health care they deserve.”

Mr Salter pledged his support as heart patients, carers, and medics who descended on the Houses of Parliament this week demanding a renewed commitment from all political parties to tackle heart and circulatory disease - the UK’s biggest killer - during the next decade.

Almost one hundred British Heart Foundation supporters lobbied their local MPs with calls for a planned and published approach to protect the heart health of the nation. They were backed by a 150,000 signature petition from people calling for a new heart plan.

Mr Salter said:-

“Heart and circulatory disease will affect almost every family at some stage in their lives. That’s why I’m pledging my support to tackle heart and circulatory disease at the next general election and beyond.”

While the number of people dying from cardiovascular disease has fallen, the UK still lags behind other western countries.

Peter Hollins, Chief Executive at the BHF said:-

“There has been tremendous progress over the last ten years - but heart disease is responsible for a third of all deaths in the UK. We need to go further and faster to beat this.

“Patients still don’t receive life saving treatments like cardiac rehabilitation - if this were a pill it would have been on the NHS years ago. Heart and circulatory disease remains disproportionately high amongst people living in disadvantaged communities. We need a Government that is willing to tackle the UK’s biggest killer head on with a new heart plan to ensure patients are given the heart health care they deserve.”

“And alongside our moves to bring democracy to the second chamber, we will also bring new politics to the primary seat of power in the land, the House of Commons.”

Of the Wright Committee proposals Gordon Brown said:-

“These reforms will increase the ability and the legitimacy of parliament to hold the government to account - as I believe that the proper role of parliament is, indeed, to scrutinise the executive and it should be given all the necessary tools to do so.”

Members of all parties have raised objections to the proposed method by which the Wright Committee reforms will be considered by the Commons. Instead of a debate on 23^rd February on an amendable Motion followed by a series of votes, the Government have chosen a procedural device which will allow a single objection to block any changes. The votes would then have to take place on another day and the Government have failed to provide time for this to occur before the general election.

Graham Allen MP said:-

“Rather than invent procedural problems to stop effective decision making by Parliament on reform, it is quite simple for Government to put matters before the House for decision. I have tabled such Motions on the Order Paper to demonstrate how easy this would be. Government merely has to amend them to their taste and the House will be able to take a decision. The Prime Minister must will the means as well as the ends.”

Martin Salter added:-

“I very much welcome the recent open letter to the Leader of the House from the Hansard Society and a coalition of six other organisations involved in Parliamentary and constitutional affairs. They rightly make the point that every single one of the major parliamentary reforms introduced by this government since 1997 were subject to an amendable and debatable motion followed by a series of votes. Some of these proposals were highly contentious such as the programming of Bills or changes to sitting hours but no procedures were adopted to allow a single objection to disrupt or delay their implementation. Why then are the Wright Committee proposals to be treated in a wholly different manner? It is simply bizarre to allow opponents of reform an effective veto over something both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House have indicated that they support.”

He continued:-

“I cannot believe there is a single, intelligent member of this of all Parliaments, that thinks it’s a good idea to face the electorate accused of being a “roadblock to reform”. It is time for Gordon Brown to show that he too is serious about achievable reforms which are not only necessary but which have widespread support across the whole House.”

The Labour duo recognise the tremendous role the Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre plays in the local community for those affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis is an incurable and unpredictable disease affecting the central nervous system. The Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre provides therapies for people with Multiple Sclerosis in Berkshire and the surrounding counties, giving them the power to manage their disease rather than letting it control their lives, and keeping them as mobile and independent as possible. The Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre is also an official sponsor of this year’s Corporate Relay Challenge.

Mr Salter and Ms Dodds have set up a Justgiving page to help raise as much money as possible for their chosen charity. It can be found at        www.justgiving.com/Martin-Salter-MP. Mr Salter, Patron of the charity, will be taking part for the last time as a Member of Parliament. The event follows his parachute jump from 10,000ft last September which raised over £1200 for the same organisation.

Mr Salter said:-

“I was delighted and at my age a little daunted to be invited to run in this year’s Reading Half Marathon. But I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to raise money for the Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre, one of my favourite local charities, who do such an excellent job for those suffering from this crippling condition. I begin a gentle training programme over the next few weeks and I’m looking forward to once again participating in one of the finest events in the Reading calendar.

Anneliese Dodds, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Reading East added:-

“I’m delighted to be part of the Reading Labour Party team raising money for the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre. So many people are affected by MS or have friends or family who have suffered from this unpredictable and incurable disease. The Centre does fantastic work and I really hope we can raise lots of funds to support it”.

Jackie McColm of the Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre stated:-

“Martin Salter has been the Patron of the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre for many years and we are delighted that he will be taking part in the Reading Half Marathon Corporate Relay Challenge on Sunday 21^st March to raise much needed funds for this local charity. In addition to Martin’s team we have 25 runners in the Half Marathon and a team of 40 marshals outside the Madejski who will be cheering him on”.